For Obama, Touchstones Can Be Touchy

U.S. President Barack Obama, center, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, view the Dead Sea Scroll at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, Israel, Thursday, March 21, 2013. With them is the director of the museum, James Snyder, far right and Yitzhak Molcho, left, senior adviser to Mr. Netanyahu. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Pool)

JERUSALEM — President Barack Obama’s visit to the Dead Sea Scrolls on Thursday was an important stop on a visit rich in symbolism.

The scrolls are the oldest known manuscripts of the Old Testament. For Israelis, they are the written proof of Jews’ ancient ties to territory at the core of their conflict with the Palestinians.

By visiting the Dead Sea Scrolls, Mr. Obama was essentially affirming the Jewish people’s ancient connection to the land of Israel.

For White House officials, choosing Mr. Obama’s itinerary presented a political minefield, in which every potential stop was infused with history and layers of often clashing meaning for both Israelis and Palestinians.

On Friday, the final day of Mr. Obama’s three day visit, he is scheduled to lay a wreath at the grave of Theodor Herzl, considered the father of modern Zionism. To Israelis, Herzl is a George Washington-like figure. To Palestinians, he is the founder of a movement that led to national tragedy.

The Israel Museum has 550,000 artifacts. “But if there’s one thing you’d want to show the American president, it’s the scrolls,” said museum director James S. Snyder. “The Dead Sea Scrolls are our Mona Lisa.”

But there were other options as well. The museum recently unveiled a new exhibit on King Herod, the Roman client king who ruled ancient Israel until 4 B.C. King Herod was known for his deft political handling of the conflicting demands of the Roman emperor and his domestic constituents in Judea.

That’s why the exhibit’s curator, David Mevorah, said he felt the King Herod exhibit might have made a suitable stop for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mr. Obama.

“It’s raises good questions for Netanyahu: Do you work with the emperor or go against the emperor?” he said, noting that in the contemporary case, the emperor metaphor refers to President Obama.

A U.S. official said museum officials had wanted to show Mr. Obama other exhibits at the museum, but the White House refused, for fear of the political sensitivities surrounding some other exhibits. Mr. Snyder said that time constraints, not politics, dictated President Obama’s schedule.

For example, Palestinians have criticized the King Herod exhibit, which relies on excavations of sites on occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank. So, too, the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in caves in the West Bank. Museum officials dismiss those criticisms, noting the scrolls were discovered in 1947, before the establishment of the state of Israel.

Every potential camera angle of the president’s visit was vetted by U.S. officials looking for potentially controversial exhibits in the background, the U.S. official said.

The Dead Sea Scrolls include over 800 manuscripts written mostly between 200 B.C. and 70 A.D. and including parts of every book of the Hebrew Old Testament except the book of Esther. They also include numerous extra Biblical texts and unknown writings, hymns and prayers.

Mr. Snyder selected three scrolls to highlight Mr. Obama. The first scroll he showed him was the Isaiah Scroll, the only scroll that includes a complete biblical text and thus is considered one of the most important scrolls by many scholars.

The Isaiah scroll — which some Christian scholars have dubbed the “fifth gospel” — holds added importance for many Christians. It embraces theological concepts that are seen as early hints of the Christianity that was to come. The Book of Luke mentions Jesus reading Isaiah.

It was thus the perfect choice for a Christian U.S. president trying to connect to the Jewish narrative, said Mr. Snyder.

“Isaiah really makes a cross connection between Judaism and early Christianity,” he said. “It’s the whole idea of morphing from one religion to another.”

It hit home with Mr. Obama, Mr. Snyder said. “He got it big time and said this is very important.”

While Messrs. Netanyahu and Obama looked at the scroll, Mr. Netanyahu read a famous Hebrew passage from Isaiah to Mr. Obama. “Nation shall not lift up sword against nation nor learn war anymore,” he said.

With an eye to the peace process, the visit to the Dead Sea Scrolls was convenient for other reasons. Mr. Netanyahu’s adviser tasked with handling the peace process with the Palestinians, Yitzhak Molho, is chairman of the Israel Museum, and joined Mr. Obama on Thursday’s tour.

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